Breathing grows deep.
Blood pours out.
"......"
Black Abyss branch chief Betelgeuse put a hand to his chest.
In the lamplight the blood was purple. It had been eaten away by a curse. This blood had no platelets. It could not heal a wound. It destroyed the viscera.
But he didn’t need to go that far to see his own end.
It was because of the old man standing before him.
"You impudent little rat... do you even know where you’ve crawled in to."
"......"
That man was the Chair of the Hiaka Royal Elders’ Council. Regent in Hiaka III’s stead. A chancellor who had long been a pillar of the kingdom.
He was the two-horned demon, Setian.
"So I’ve been found out...."
"You think I wouldn’t notice a rat crawling in."
"I see. The old man’s eyes are sharp."
A smile hung on Betelgeuse’s lips beneath the hair that had fallen over his face.
"...As they say, grotesquely strong for a half-dead elder. Chair Setian.... If you had this much power, why did you sit still during the Assassination War...?"
"Shut your mouth, Betelgeuse. Can’t you grasp the situation?"
Fwuck—
A jet-black bar of metal ripped into Betelgeuse’s vitals.
Gulp— blood surged out of the middle-aged assassin’s mouth.
"Who are you. Who sent you. What bastard dared tell you to stick your filthy foot into the Sanctuary?"
"...Who knows. Would an assassin of my level be used as a tool."
"No, you are a tool. And you’re moving on someone’s orders. Just like the imperial family wrote the ‘Memorandum∞.’"
"......"
Setian’s eyes narrowed.
In the dark wooden corridor. Behind his back, black things heaved and writhed.
Was that his true nature?
He was the king Hiaka III’s close friend, and an administrator considered the second founding father of Hiaka. But inside, what wore human skin was a monster.
"Is it the Empire? Kreutz? Or Kaiser? If not even that... don’t tell me him?"
"......"
"You’ve no idea how painfully I can kill a man, do you. I’ll give you one last chance to go peacefully."
"......"
"Speak. Who was it."
Sitting, Betelgeuse looked around him. Assassins he had spent forty, fifty years with—men who had begun to see their grandchildren—... were all dead.
One with a hole through his heart. One beheaded. One with his guts spilled out.
And then—
They began to twitch.
The dark-violet energy smeared through the blood was moving the dead.
‘...This is how an assassin ends.’
Death.
Or an end worse than death.
It was the story he always told wherever he went. If you hit a lick, quit this damned job fast. He himself had intended the same.
As a mainstay of Hiaka’s Black Abyss, he’d settle his debts, then leave this world behind.
‘......If only that bastard hadn’t shown up before my eyes, I would’ve quit too.’
In the end, his eye had been accurate.
The punk he’d seen when he was a fresh yellow chick had climbed to a Constellation seat in just three years.
For someone like him, who couldn’t touch the Constellations no matter how many decades he reached, only fell instead—he wanted to see a higher world, beside him, as his tool.
‘So this is everything.’
He hadn’t found the Sanctuary, but the usable information was already flying up beyond the sky.
Tied to the ankle of a cute crow that could speak human words.
Which meant there was only one thing left for him to do.
"I asked you who, Betelgeuse!"
"Who?"
At the elder’s wrath, Betelgeuse smiled faintly.
"Your mom."
The next moment, twelve pairs of Betelgeuse’s ribs burst out through his skin.
Rrrrip!
But they weren’t bone. They were explosive metal—his entire flesh had been replaced with a powerful explosive. As mana surged, it heated red.
"You worm!!!"
As Setian thrashed and sprang back, Betelgeuse looked to his subordinates, unable even to die.
‘May the information paid for in blood... mean something to you.......’
Betelgeuse closed his eyes, recalling the face of a man fifty years younger.
After that, a massive explosion erupted in the royal residence.
───── .
Crawling out of the blast, Setian. His face had turned demonic.
The bastard had kept his mouth shut to the end, but seeing the direction that filthy crow flew, he could roughly guess it.
Who it was that had tried to trespass upon his Sanctuary.
"Haken."
"Yes, Chairman!"
"Summon the entire Royal Guard Knights. Right now."
Dante Hiakapo.
No—
Abraxas... you’re going to sucker-punch me like this?
He had meant to spare the bastard if he could, at least until he forced him to reveal the Lord of Eternal Return’s location. But making a play for the Sanctuary was something he could not abide.
"......I suppose that’s as far as it goes."
The wrinkled leather of the elder’s brow began to bulge.
***
The Rebecca I remembered was always a sharply arranged person. Every morning from dawn she brought a maid and spent about an hour setting her hair. Dabbed and stamped things on her face. Put on a perfectly tailored dress.
So her current appearance felt unfamiliar.
"You said you were in pain—no wonder you look a mess."
"......"
Hair, tangled any which way. Eyes sunken and raw, reddened.
A pajama thrown on like a garment draped on a hanger called a body.
I set a fruit basket on the table beside her.
"......"
Rebecca looked up at me without a word.
She sat half-propped on the bed.
I waited for her to speak, and so only silence continued.
"How are you."
"...It hurts."
Her voice cracked. She truly looked in pain.
"I thought it was a light cold from the seasonal turn, but you’ve rested longer than expected. Curious. As the ‘Master of Mana,’ your body ought to be free of almost all illness."
"......"
"Start getting up. The Hero Party tactical lectures are backed up. Everyone but you is learning and understanding."
"...Don’t call me that."
"Hm?"
"...Don’t call me ‘you.’"
"Why."
She shook her head. Then she changed the subject.
"Do I need extra lessons?"
"You do. Of course. Now that the Hero Party is all gathered. We have to match what each of us can do. How we should act."
"Will you teach me separately?"
"I should. Shall we start now. We’re short on time."
"......"
Why was that? Rebecca’s face eased a little. In other words, up to a moment ago that face had been full of anxiety. And then—
"Before that. There are two things we need to clear up."
"Yes."
"First is this. I clearly asked you to support Balmung, and you agreed. Then why didn’t you help in time?"
"......"
The face that had relaxed hardened again.
"If you’d supported with grand magic, Balmung could have avoided the amputation of his leg. Now he’s replaced it with a prosthetic, but it’s not the same as his own. I want to know why."
"...Did that kid say so?"
"That kid?"
"The sky-colored one. With horns."
"Eve."
"...Yes. That one."
"No. I gathered it through 『Glass Butterfly』 I had planted in advance. It’s your turn to answer. Why?"
"Reaper Constellation Ω was behind me. It felt dangerous, so I couldn’t rashly make a move."
So that was it.
By Glass Butterfly, the mana flow in the area had looked strange.
As expected, there had been external pressure.
"Did you meet Reaper Constellation Ω privately."
"...Yes."
"What did that dangerous woman say."
"......"
Rebecca shook her head.
"You have to tell me."
"...No. She said little of anything. Just that she came to see me for {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} a moment. Then she left."
"What did she say."
"......"
"Answer. Even a passing remark might be important."
"......"
It was then. Rebecca grabbed her head and leaned her body against me. As if complaining of a headache.
Since the Hero Party doesn’t trigger a 【Script】, I felt frustrated.
"...Do you have to know what she said?"
"It’s truly important. Whether she wants it or not, Reaper Constellation Ω is tied to the Demon King."
"......"
It felt awkward to push her away, so I supported the body leaning on me.
Rebecca suddenly spoke something off-the-wall.
"She said you abandoned her."
This time it was my turn to shut my mouth.
Because that isn’t me.
"So she said she’d come to see who your wife is now."
"Is that all?"
"...Mostly."
For the moment, it didn’t feel like a lie.
It sounded plausible.
"There’s a second thing I want to ask."
At that moment I had to pause.
Maybe it was the cold. A slight fever had spread; her warm forehead touched my chin. Rebecca stretched her head like a cat and rubbed against me.
A bit flustered, I pulled my chin back. Then her face lifted up little by little.
Red eyes.
Eyes I had once thought cruel—those red eyes, for some reason, looked up at me helplessly. From a distance that felt too close.
"What are you doing."
"...My head hurts."
A small hand gripped the cloth at my chest. Too low to be a collar-grab. It felt like she’d just grabbed whatever her hand found.
"...What’s the second question?"
"I want to ask about Setian’s Sanctuary. And about Eve too."
The moment she heard me, Rebecca froze.
As if the strings of a doll had suddenly snapped.
"From various angles I looked into the past, and my calculations say you... you might have met Eve when you were children."
"...I don’t really know."
"You were probably both around ten. Maybe eleven. The place was inside the royal residence."
"...No. I don’t know."
"Eve would have been living in the royal dorms to complete elite knight training. Do you remember anything about that?"
Rebecca soon shook her head.
I deliberately didn’t mention that Rebecca had hated Eve, and watched her reaction.
I had to know the truth. What had happened between the two of them.
"Rebecca. Think a little more."
"...I don’t know her."
"No. You can recall it. We need this for the completion of the Hero Party. Think a little more about Eve—about the sky-blue hair and the blue eyes."
"......I don’t know a thing, I don’t... I said I don’t know...."
Her breathing quickened. Rebecca’s breath.
In eyes that normally never betrayed her mood, red blotches slowly spread.
"There’s probably a clue to why Eve’s memories were severed, and to how all those curses work. You learned 『Soul Devouring Curse』 from Setian in the first place, didn’t you?"
"......"
"Rebecca. Please. Eve is a pitiful Hero. If not you, no one can testify to what happened then."
The hand gripping my clothes began to tremble.
Soon Rebecca asked in a wavering voice.
"...Why are you doing this? I said I don’t know.... Why do you keep asking. I said I don’t remember—why do you press me. Is she that important...?"
"She is."
Because she’s a Hero.
But the reply that came back was misaligned with this conversation.
"...More than me?"
It was simultaneous. Rebecca seemed startled by her own words. She covered her mouth with her hand. Then she lay back on the bed. As if that wasn’t enough, she rolled onto her side. Then she lifted the blanket and pulled it over her head.
"What?"
Now it was my turn to be puzzled.
"What did you just say?"
A voice leaked from under the blanket.
So when I tried to pull the blanket off by force, Rebecca jolted and yanked it back over her head.
When I lifted it again, this time Rebecca snapped her head toward me.
It wasn’t the unfocused gaze from a moment ago.
It was sharp.
"Rebecca. What on earth have you been—"
"Dante Hiakapo."
"...What."
"If I say this, I know you’ll see me like a child."
"What."
"I know you’re not that interested in me, and that you married me by contract to collude with the royal family.... It’s fine. I understand everything."
"......"
"I know too. I know it’s a contract.... I should act like an adult. I know it all. But I can’t help it.... It hurts too much; I can’t stand it...."
The words popped out. At the same time, the strength went out of her eyes.
"I wish you’d stop talking to me about that girl.... It’s too hard to listen...."
"Why. You said you don’t even remember the past."
"I don’t like her."
"What?"
Rebecca scrunched both eyes.
"I want you to like me a little more."